Factual error: In the 19th Street Parade, it shows the Budweiser Clydesdales pulling their famous wagon. Even though this movie is set in 1897, Budweiser did not start using Clydesdales until April 1933 when the sons gave their father, August Busch Sr., the owner of Budweiser, a 6 team team of Clydesdales to celebrate the end of Prohibition.
Factual error: In the air raid scene at the beginning of the film, the burning car is a 1950s Ford Popular.
Factual error: Before 1949, when the part of the film set in Hollywood takes place, the famous sign on the mountain read "Hollywoodland", not "Hollywood". The sign had been allowed to deteriorate and during that year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce offered to remove the last four letters and repair the rest.
Factual error: Although set in the 1960's, a modern UPS truck is seen just before the rooftop concert scene.
Factual error: The Swedish girl Ulla keeps saying "God dag, min vännen" as a greeting. Problem is, the grammar is incorrect. "God dag, min vän" means "good day, my friend". "God dag, min vännen", as Ulla says, means "good day, my the friend". "Vännen" is the definite article of the Swedish word for "friend".
Factual error: In every version of the story, including the book, in the scene where Augustus Gloop is sucked into the chocolate pipe, there's no pressure below him (it's an open river, with the pipe sticking into it) so the pressure must come from a vacuum at the top of the pipe. Augustus would have had his lungs and innards sucked out until he was thin enough to pass through the pipe. He would not have survived.
Factual error: After Gene Kelly sings "The Heather on the Hill", he sees more heather on the other side of the bridge. He starts across but Cyd Charisse freezes in horror, since to cross the bridge would break the spell over the village of Brigadoon. She then drops some of her heather in the middle of the path and runs back to the village. The camera cuts to Gene Kelly chasing after her, but the heather dropped on the path has disappeared.
Factual error: There are mountains in the background in several of the scenes, but there aren't actually any mountains in or near St Louis.
Factual error: At the end of the movie, when Burke faces Sheldon, he tells him "one of the secrets about owning a gun: You have to cock it." But since Sheldon's weapon was a double-action revolver he doesn't have to cock it. He could just pull the trigger.
Factual error: "Can't take my eyes off you" was released in May 1967. The recording scene of this song shows an Ampeg SVT amplifier in the background. Ampeg SVT was not available before 1969 and the specific model shown on the scene (with white rocker toggle) is a later 1976-1979 model. (01:54:10)
Factual error: During the morning training session, Shang shot an arrow to the top of the pole so his soldiers can get it, but the arrow is stuck in a horizontal position. A difficult position to achieve, for someone shooting an arrow from below. Even if the arrow hit the pole at such a point in its arc, its kinetic energy would be at its weakest, preventing it from boring into the pole.
Factual error: When the substitute teacher is teaching the children about reproduction, the Playboy magazine is from September 1962, but the year is supposed to be 1961.
Factual error: Elvis and Ann Margaret take a trip in a helicopter over Hoover Dam and Lake Meade. They are flying in a small 2 seater copter with a bubble canopy and no doors. During the trip Elvis and Ann talk to each other without headphones or microphones in a normal tone of voice. In that type of helicopter, especially one with no doors, the sound would have been deafening and they wouldn't have heard each other even while screaming.
Factual error: When Hawkins prepares to leave Princess Gwendolin's chamber, a pet cockatoo sits on a pole near the window. Now how could a parrot native to Australia - or even a "papagei" from South America, as Hawkins intones - appear in medieval England when neither continent would be discovered for several centuries?
Suggested correction: Birds, of course, range widely and flexibly, a storm in the 1800's introduced small African storks to the Americas, Australian birds, to a degree, can be found in Tropical Asia, and therefore could have found their way to Europe via the exotic animal trade (which did well enough for the wealthy at the time),, and the word papagei? Medieval information, and word origins are notoriously fuzzy, ie the first animal to ever be called "penguin" was a similar Northern Hemisphere creature called the Great Auk.
Factual error: When Pootie is leaving Biggie Shorty's house, he says he is going away. Biggie Shorty asks where, to which Pootie replies he doesn't know. Biggie Shorty says that she has a home in the country and Pootie can stay there. (She even says South Carolina I think). Later in the movie after Pootie has gone to the country home, in the scene where the Sheriff introduces Pootie to his daughter, you can clearly see a NJ Turnpike sticker in the store window behind the Sheriff. The NJ Turnpike does not run through South Carolina, it is in New Jersey.
Factual error: The boxcars in the opening scene have bar codes, but the film is set in the 1930s.
Factual error: The copper pot Jiminy looks into shows his reflection at a larger size. It should be reflected at a smaller size though.
Factual error: When Sherrie and Drew are in Tower Records, the background song is I Remember You by Skid Row. But that album wasn't released until 1989, and the movie is set in 1987.
Suggested correction: The movie also says that Drew wrote "Don't Stop Believin" when the song came out in 1981. They also sing Heaven and More than words which didn't come out until 1989 and 1990 respectively. It's a musical that's full of 80's music, so they pulled all sorts of 80's music. It's not a mistake to have songs show up in a year, in a completely made up timeline.
Factual error: In the scene where Cinderella is in her new room at the Prince's castle, the roses prominently displayed in the foreground are brightly coloured Hybrid Tea roses (the pointy ones) which were not bred until the early 20th Century. In the 1700s (panniered skirts and powdered hair) the roses would have been of looser formation, with softer colours, e.g pink or cream cabbage roses. (These roses also appear in later scenes.)
Factual error: Although quite typical for biopics of this era, certain aspects of Cohan's life are glossed over. The movie shows him in a lifelong marriage to his first love. However, he was in fact married in 1899 to Ethel Levy, and after their divorce in 1907 he married Agnes Mary Nolan, who remained his wife until Cohan's death in 1942.
Suggested correction: In the book Charlie ask Mr. Wonka if all the other kids would be all right and he tells him yes they will.
This isn't a valid correction because the point of the mistake is that he wouldn't survive, as shown. At best you're saying Wonka lied to Charlie.
Bishop73